


Your Labour is Never in Vain

by snowynight



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Captivity, Developing Relationship, Gen, Lima Syndrome, Prison, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-23 22:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11998821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowynight/pseuds/snowynight
Summary: Ellar's supposed to guard a captured local deity, but he gets so attached that he deserts his post to free it.





	Your Labour is Never in Vain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tish/gifts).



“Are you sure that this is some kind of god? ” Ellar asked.

Tehan replied with amusement, “If it was something impressive, did you think it would be at this backwater outpost? At least you have an easy task.”

Ellar was forced to agree with him, as his child-sized prisoner was boring, doing nothing but drawing on the floor with its long fingers all the day. Even though Ellar knew that the cold iron restraints it carried suppressed its power, it looked nothing like the majestic statues of deities Ellar saw in temples. However, Ellar was sent to follow orders, not questioning any of them.

“When can this assignment end? Surely the general can't be angry at me forever .”

“The grand hall is still sprayed bright red, thanks to you.”

“Point taken.” Ellar sighed.

“Cheer up. You can lack off and do nothing unlike me with an actual job to do.”

“I know, Lieutenant Excellent.”

 _Must as well make myself comfortable_ , Ellar thought when Tehan left. He took a seat and started his watch.

At the end of the day Ellar felt bored beyond limit. The creature didn’t even move towards the door nor seemed to have any natural need to take care of. He would soon go stir crazy very soon.

_Day 7: I know the general hate me, but surely he can give me a better punishment than watching the moss grow?_

* * *

 

During the following week, he made notes and drew various pictures of the being on his journal, even making detailed notes for the snakes on Feen’s head - It was too tiresome to keep writing “this thing”, so he decided to name it Feen.

_Snake#1 is red and spotty and hangs still over Feen’s head , so I name it Sleepy._

_Snake#2 is green in dim light but flashes gold when the noon light spreads through the small window, so I name it Jade._

_..._

_If I can manage to sneak my notes out and publish it, no one will want it other than a sleeping aid_ , Ellar thought. _What a boring thing Feen is._

Until a frail green sprout raised its head on Feen’s cell floor.

Ellar immediately grabbed his cold iron dagger and rushed into the cell. _It’s faking. How can I be so stupid_ \-----

The sprout yellowed and crushed under its weight. Within seconds it disappeared into dust. Feen kept staring at it as if Ellar didn’t exist. If Feen was a human, Ellar would have said it looked sad.

Ellar retreated from the cell.

That night Ellar shared meal with Tehan who asked about Feen. Ellar wondered if he should talk about what had happened earlier but decided not to. It was not like Feen actually made something that persisted. Besides, the general would lengthen the assignment if he thought Feen was worth watching. He could speak later if similar thing happened.

* * *

 

“By the way, what's the creature?”

“There are so many theories. Some people say that it's a naga. Some say that it's a forest spirit because it's caught in the forest and has green skin. Some say that it's a relative to the god of death because of its altar design. But we are sure of one thing: whatever it is it's probably just a lackey and a minor one, so nobody cares about it. It hurt several people with its venom until Priest Ava poured blessed water on it. Why do you ask?”

"Just doing my job," Ellar lied. "I can't believe the general was bored enough to keep a useless thing."

"I hope so. Don't get too attached. You're just doing a job."

"Are you kidding?" Ellar laughed. 

Netherness, Ellar started to wonder about what Feen was like before its captivity. His ability and the location he was discovered suggested a link to plants, and snake hair in Ellar’s faith suggested a tie to the earth. What did it do then: promoting plant growth? Sunbathing like typical snakes? What else?

Whatever it did, it was surely better than getting chained in a barren room.

Ellar felt an uncomfortable weight in his throat when Feen stared at the wall with a blank expression.

* * *

 

Ellar felt silly with the children's toys in his arm when he opened the cell door but anything was better than watching Feen staring at a cell with four barren walls. If anything they were dirt cheap.

Feen stared at the toys when Ellar placed a string puppet, a toy wooden cart and a wooden puzzle on the floor. Probably it never saw them before, Ellar realized.

“You can… well… push it, ” Ellar said while demonstrating what to do with the car. He felt heat rising up his face when showed the use of other toys until he stormed off from the cell. _What's he thinking?_

Feen put the puppet on the cart and pushed with a questioning look. While he might not have loved them, it was at least better than nothing.

Ellar took them away near the end of his shift,  because he couldn't afford people seeing them. People would have talked and it would be the last thing he needed.

“I will bring them back,” Ellar said, feeling like stealing from a puppy when he saw accusation in Feen's eyes.

* * *

 

”It's time to take a bath. You stink.” Ellar had no idea how he stood Feen’s smell so long, and the rags it wore were so torn and dirty that he doubted if Feen had ever had them washed or replaced, so he found some of his old clothes that would fit and decided to give it a bath.

Feen struggled hard with him and nearly knocked out his eyes. “Watch it!” Ellar cursed while pulling its clothes off. He went still when Feen’s back was exposed.

There were a lot of untreated wounds on Feen’s back, dripping with dark oily liquid. Feen shrunk into a ball and avoided his eyes.

“Who do this to you?” Ellar asked, although knowing that Feen could not answer. Some sicko must have found Feen a good punching bag as he couldn’t fight back, but not everyone had access to Feen.

Meanwhile, he was oblivious to Feen’s injury. As a supposed guard, he was a utter failure.

“I’m sorry,” Ellar said. He continued with a frown. “You’ll feel better if I clean them though.”

He washed Feen’s wounds and suppressed a groan when Feen bit him, banged its wounds with slices of cloths torn from an old shirt and put on new clothing on him. Feen pulled at his new clothes but was calmer now, playing with a tiger doll Ellar bought recently.

After pouring out the now dirt black bath water and burning Feen’s old clothes, Ellar quietly swore that he would find out the one behind Feen’s injury and made them play.

A week later, Feen’s night shift guard was blindfolded with a sac and beaten badly at a dark alley, so Ellar had to take extra shift to cover up the man’s duty. To everyone’s surprise, Ellar took them without much complaints.

Tehan patted his shoulder, “You have finally grown up. At this rate the general will reassign you soon.”

“I’m just doing my duty,” Ellar only said with a smile.

* * *

 

“I hope you’ll like it. So much trouble to get one.” Ellar said when he put a local fruit before Feen. Although Feen never seemed to need food, Ellar had long been taught that every deities and spirits needed offering so he decided to bring one for it. The hairy fruit had the exact shade of colour as Sleepy, and the merchant swore that it was worthy of the king. At least its price was, Ellar thought with a grimace.

Feen stared at the fruit and touch it with hesitation. Carefully it held it in his hands, stretching out a thin forked tongue out from its lips. The fruit glew in a pale green light, shrinking in size until it disappeared. Feen’s eyes looked brighter and his skin looked smoother.

Ellar brought more fruit afterwards, but Feen didn’t always accept his gifts. He was mystified why Feen ignored a round, red and juicy fruit but favoured a bunch of bitter dark berries so he tried to look for answers from the locals. The answers were contradictory and confusing, and he suspected that they were making fun of him, but at least Feen did like the purple swollen root.

* * *

 

“I hear that you spend a lot of time with the thing in the dungeon,” Tehan said.

Ellar laughed to feign nonchalance. “I’m its guard. Where will I be other than the dungeon?”

“Good. Some soldiers made mistakes to be soft with the prisoners, and they didn’t fare well,” Tehan said. “I don’t want you to be disgraced like Alhon.”

“Of course not,” Ellar patted his shoulder. “It’s just useless thing. Why will I feel anything about that?”

“Good. The higher-ups have agreed that the thing is useless and wastes our resources. They’ll arrange to behead it to show the locals who their boss are. I’ll volunteer you to be the executioner. It’ll be a good chance to let them remember you well.”

“Of course!” Ellar kept grinning hard enough that he was worried his mouth would split.

* * *

 

It wasn't easy to steal the keys to Feen’s restraints, but with a dozen bottles of drugged good wine, Ellar’s old reliable lock pick and the goddess of luck’s blessing, he walked into the dungeon with the keys hidden in the pooches in his belt.

Feen looked at him with question and touched him so it must have sensed his tension. He had only one chance, and he would rather avoid losing both of their heads. He unlocked the chain on its wrists and ankles, and for some reasons the room felt wetter and colder. Must be his nerve’s doing.

Quickly he put Feen in a bag with its favourite toy while whispering, “Be quiet and very still.” He chose a less trodden path out of the compound, avoiding the night patrol. He was sorry that he couldn’t bring Feen to its forest home, as it would be among the first places their pursuers would look for them, but there was a mountain with thick vegetation west of the city that could serve as Feen’s second home, as the locals rumoured that some deities were sighted there.

* * *

 

“Goodbye, Feen,” Ellar said when lying down with a bleeding leg. The pursuers were out of sight now, but it would be much better for Feen to continue by itself. If nothing he could distract them for a moment. The snakes on Fee’s heads seemed ready to attack an army, but Ellar still remembered why they met at the first place.

Feen stayed by his side and licked the skin around his wound, which tickled him.

“Go now. I don’t know when they’ll return,” Ellar tried to brushed it away. “What’re you----”

Feen’s bite on his neck interrupted his words. Ellar felt lighter and better, and something stirred inside him. “What have you done?” Ellar wanted to ask, but words abandoned him when he was now in an old golden forest, where Feen expanded to envelope the world.

* * *

 

Ellar Quinze the soldier was listed as a deserter in the compound and there was still a warrant for him. No one had seen him after his theft of the thing in the dungeon, and his close friend Tehan was drunk for three days.

Several years later a lumberer said one day when a tiger was about to kill him on the nearby mountain, a glowing man with branches and leaves extending from his body saved him, and his face bore resemblance with the wanted Ellar. However, the lumberer was known to be a drunk and a liar, so no one bothered to believe him.


End file.
